It's hard to see how V7 manages to load the 24in D24W33 LCD display with so many features and yet undercut the competition on price.

Don't let the V7 D24W33's inelegant name - a cacophony of letters and numbers - turn you off: this 24in monitor packs a slew of inputs and abilities typical of more-expensive displays.

Carrying a native resolution of 1920x1200 pixels, the V7 D24W33 has both HDMI and VGA inputs. For DVI connection, V7 includes an HDMI-to-DVI cable with the monitor (the cable is a nice find).

The V7 D24W33 comes with a headphone jack, and built-in front-facing speakers provide a good range of sound for the price. In addition, you can make the volume fairly loud without causing any distortion; still, a separate speaker system would provide richer, fuller sound.

A 25mm thick bezel borders the top, left side, and right side of the display; the bottom is much thicker, to house the speakers. The V7 D24W33 can pivot, swivel, and tilt, and you can adjust its height, too. The on-screen display menus are easy to navigate, but they lack advanced adjustments such as individual colour controls.

The V7 D24W33 comes with a quick-start guide and a CD with a paltry 13-page manual. The CD also holds Portrait Display's Pivot software for adjusting the image when you tilt the monitor - but oddly, it lacks monitor drivers (you must download those from V7's website).

If you want a monitor that delivers vivid colours for use with digital photos, gaming, or watching movies, the V7 D24W33 will disappoint. On the other hand, for general internet, word processing, and business applications, few 24in displays offer better value than this one.

It features both analogue and digital visual interface (DVI) connectors, but little else in terms of extras. And, although the BenQ FP202W V3's cost may be attractive, the images onscreen suffer from very limited viewing angles, and the displayed text is marred by an oversharpened appearance.

This new version of the Dell Vostro V130 laptop updates its identically named predecessor with a new processor and spec. At only 1.6kg, this is a classic thin-and-light notebook, yet cuts few corners on build quality or materials.